Urban Myths In WoW

The Tank Shortage

Let's take 3 Guilds and see how the players in that guild would perceive the reality of the tank shortage.

Guild A is in Tier 4 content. Their Main Tank just took a month long vacation from the game. They are a small guild and really didn't have anyone ready to fill in the gaps. Perhaps they had capable players, but the toons were a bit undergeared or lacked experience. This Guild sees and believes in a severe tank shortage and hopes Blizzard does something quickly to get more people to roll tanks.

Guild B is in Tier 5 content. They have several players with experienced and geared tanks. One of their tanks just got ninja'ed by a Tier 6 guild. They may be a week or two bump where they get a tank up to speed on fights he hasn't tanked, but for the most part, they keep right on chugging. This Guild doesn't see a severe tank shortage, but a more mild one. While action on Blizzard's part to get more people to roll tanks would be welcome, they probably don't see a pressing need.

Guild C is in Tier 6 content. They have more tanks than they can possibly ever use. They have tanks sitting at the stone waiting to sub in. One of their tanks leaves the game to go place Hello Kitty Adventure World. They miss their old raiding comrade, but their raids hardly miss a beat. This Guild doesn't see a tank shortage, in fact, they probably feel like there are too many tanks.

My belief? Good tanks slowly migrate to the more progressed guilds leaving a gap in the lesser progressed guilds, and for 5 mans/Heroics. Warriors are the most played class in WoW, having surpassed Hunters. Yes, some are PVP devoted, but not all. Druids are plentiful (though most are Resto), and you can't walk 5 feet in Shattrah without tripping over a Protection Paladin. Boy has that has changed over the last 6 months or so.

Since Blizzard wants to answer this 'pressing' need for tanks, they have introduced a new tank class into the expansion.

World PVP

Blizzard continues to believe the player base is just dying for more World PVP. I don't think that's the case. Sure, you'll read about it often on the forum boards, but every time a World PVP objective is actually added to the game, it tends to be under utilized. The things that I think players truly want like seiging Capital Cities, Blizzard has already said no to multiple times. Now, in the expansion, they have put an entire zone dedicated to World PVP. I tend to believe the zone will not see a whole lot of action.

What do you think are some other Urban Myths in WoW?

Comments

Anonymous said…
I've noticed the tanking trends you mention. When trying to run a 5-man or Kara lack of a key tank might stop a run dead. In Tier 5 the night's plan is just adjusted a bit and things roll on.

Lake Wintergrasp seems like a cool idea. Then again, leading into TBC, Halaa seemed like a good idea as well. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt for now, but I'm not really expecting much.
Bacon said…
Well, you know what guild category I'm from. Our perception is there a shortage, but it's also a self inflicted situation. Being a smaller guild, we tend to shy away from being tank heavy so that our tanks will have the opportunities to raid. HOWEVER, once 2 of your MTs get busy in RL (with work and family), then your remaining tanks are filling those voids leaving the demands for Heroics and 10 mans short on tanks.

World PVP is so whacked. You have to wait hours for towers in Terrorkar and usually one faction controls Halaa for a majority of the time because they outnumber the other on the server. I guess it seems under utilized because of the size of our server.
Ardent Defender said…
Tank Shortage......Myth!

As a Tank that does a lot of Public Service Tanking PuGs just because I can this is a Myth.

Lots of Tanks don't PuG. Many the other tanks don't have the guts to PuG. Many that try to PuG fail from lack of experience being new Tanks. Some that tried go the easier route and become healers while harboring desires of being a Tank. Many don't want the repair bills and choose to not PuG. Others find a guild and hide inside of it between their guildmates as a safety net so barely ever seen in public on the server tanking. All the other tanks that aren't raiding or on lockdown raiding progression content are too busy doing PvP in different specs for Epics.

Tank Shortage .....Myth. Why their are plenty of tanks they JUST AREN'T TANKING!

What kind of Nut as a Tank in their right mind does public service PuGing away to benefit their realm while fronting repair bills in Epics?

You would have to be a Nut like me to do that. That is a rareity at best. Lots of tanks around just none the Tanks want to Tank and certainly most the time for random people.
Matticus said…
I'm going to have to respectfully disagree with that last point about Lake Wintergrasp. When it comes to actions or objectives in any game, there needs to be a reward associated with it. I did Halaa PvP a lot because of 2 reasons: a) My Guildies were doing it and we were having a blast as a PvP guild b) I wanted the resilience gem.

The frequency of players engaging in Lake Winterspring is going to depend largely in part on what we as players get out of it.
Bacon said…
Well, one last thing about the Tank Shortage Myth is that it will be a mute point come the expansion. Everyone will try out the Deathknight class and a good portion of them will stay with it. What this translates to is an over abundance of tanks and a severe shortage of healers.

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